Recently I read a few books that I enjoyed:
Book #1: Cleaning House: A Mom's 12-Month Experiment to Rid Her Home of Youth Entitlement by Kay Wills Wyma
This is a very Christian book written by a mom that decided to stop enabling her children (and yes, she was very much an enabler) and start expecting more from them. I love the list she made of things she wants her children to know by the time they're adults:
1. How to make a bed and maintain an orderly room.
2. How to cook and clean a kitchen
3. How to do yard work
4. How to clean a bathroom
5. How to get a job...outside our home
6. How to do laundry
7. How to do handyman jobs
8. How to host a party
9. How to work together
10. How to run errands.
11. How to put others first through service.
12. How to act mannerly
She spent a year working on this list. I especially liked the idea of putting a jar with $30 in it at the beginning of each month in each child's bedroom and then taking away a dollar each time they don't make their bed or clean up their clothes. I decided to do that this month in place of allowance and it seems to be working fairly well.
The best part of the book are all the reasons why you need to teach your children these important life skills, one of them being to teach them that they're capable. She's also very honest about how things went with her experiment and not everything went well, especially the handyman jobs, which was refreshing.
Book #2: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo
This book is very big right now. In the last few weeks I've run into so many references to it--you probably have too. It is very Japanese and that's good to keep in mind as you read it because some of the ideas will seem odd to Americans. But the basic idea is good and that is that you only keep those things in your house that make you happy. For example, you get out all your clothes and lay them on the floor. Then you pick up each piece individually and ask yourself if it "sparks joy". If it does, you keep it. If it doesn't, throw it out. For more details, see this review.
The main effect it had on me was to open my eyes to all the clutter in my house. I try to stay organized but we have a lot of storage places (too much, really) and we had a lot of stuff that we never used. So for the last few weeks I have been going through our closets and getting rid of stuff, consolidating, etc. I didn't follow her method exactly but I have to say that I feel really good about all the junk I have off-loaded. I could have been more ruthless, but maybe in a year, I'll do it again and see what I can get rid of.
My personal clothes closet looks pretty Spartan but I only kept the clothes I wear and it turns out to be a small number. I have ten pairs of shoes for all seasons and occasions. That's it. But that's all I need. I think I could really get used to this minimalist movement.
I'm not done yet--all summer long I'm going to be working on the kitchen and the kids' bedrooms with my children, and today I want to declutter my pantry and get rid of food that we're never going to eat.
It will be challenging to convince my children to get rid of their extra stuff. Who needs 30 stuffed animals or 30 t-shirts? It's a mindset that's hard to change and this book doesn't deal with that since the author has no children. But I'm going to try. We should own our stuff and not the other way around.
Book #1: Cleaning House: A Mom's 12-Month Experiment to Rid Her Home of Youth Entitlement by Kay Wills Wyma
This is a very Christian book written by a mom that decided to stop enabling her children (and yes, she was very much an enabler) and start expecting more from them. I love the list she made of things she wants her children to know by the time they're adults:
1. How to make a bed and maintain an orderly room.
2. How to cook and clean a kitchen
3. How to do yard work
4. How to clean a bathroom
5. How to get a job...outside our home
6. How to do laundry
7. How to do handyman jobs
8. How to host a party
9. How to work together
10. How to run errands.
11. How to put others first through service.
12. How to act mannerly
She spent a year working on this list. I especially liked the idea of putting a jar with $30 in it at the beginning of each month in each child's bedroom and then taking away a dollar each time they don't make their bed or clean up their clothes. I decided to do that this month in place of allowance and it seems to be working fairly well.
The best part of the book are all the reasons why you need to teach your children these important life skills, one of them being to teach them that they're capable. She's also very honest about how things went with her experiment and not everything went well, especially the handyman jobs, which was refreshing.
Book #2: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo
This book is very big right now. In the last few weeks I've run into so many references to it--you probably have too. It is very Japanese and that's good to keep in mind as you read it because some of the ideas will seem odd to Americans. But the basic idea is good and that is that you only keep those things in your house that make you happy. For example, you get out all your clothes and lay them on the floor. Then you pick up each piece individually and ask yourself if it "sparks joy". If it does, you keep it. If it doesn't, throw it out. For more details, see this review.
The main effect it had on me was to open my eyes to all the clutter in my house. I try to stay organized but we have a lot of storage places (too much, really) and we had a lot of stuff that we never used. So for the last few weeks I have been going through our closets and getting rid of stuff, consolidating, etc. I didn't follow her method exactly but I have to say that I feel really good about all the junk I have off-loaded. I could have been more ruthless, but maybe in a year, I'll do it again and see what I can get rid of.
My personal clothes closet looks pretty Spartan but I only kept the clothes I wear and it turns out to be a small number. I have ten pairs of shoes for all seasons and occasions. That's it. But that's all I need. I think I could really get used to this minimalist movement.
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| I also have a dresser with some clothes in it but you can see there's not much here! |
I'm not done yet--all summer long I'm going to be working on the kitchen and the kids' bedrooms with my children, and today I want to declutter my pantry and get rid of food that we're never going to eat.
It will be challenging to convince my children to get rid of their extra stuff. Who needs 30 stuffed animals or 30 t-shirts? It's a mindset that's hard to change and this book doesn't deal with that since the author has no children. But I'm going to try. We should own our stuff and not the other way around.
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